Real Worlds: Preface
by Shamera
Summary: SG-1 is on a world where the planet wants them dead! Also, Tank's found something in the Matrix...


**Real Worlds **  
by: Shampoo 

  


    The silent and massive ring of silver started to shake and noise came from it. The flowers there did not know what was happening. This had never happened before! Had someone finally found them out and was going to take them somewhere else where they would wither and die? 

    One by one, the red lights on parts of the ring lit up, and a wind blow over the flowers to care for them. The intruders might be someone nice, after all. But still, it never hurt to be careful.     The warmhole formed, and a massive blue light appeared, swoshing in front in its beauty that the flowers tried to mimic it in awe. The swirling blue only had a few moments of peace, though. From it stepped out two humans, and the flowers all drew back in wonder. It has been so long since they had seen such a large living thing. A rock, yes, but these humans moved so fast!     Daniel wasn't two steps out of the Stargate when he blew a huge sneeze. The world was completely covered in flowers!     "Wow," he heard Sam breathe. "The Stargate was placed in the middle of a wildflowers field."     Daniel frowned. It wasn't able to say anything yet when another sneeze came. The was a flicker behind the flowers. And the flicker was starting to get bigger.     "Nice planet." Jack said, tucking his trusty sunglasses in his front pocket. "But it's another flower planet. Just hope we don't run into another Keeper." He was refurring to the time when SG-1 had been captured and thrown into a virual world where they had to suffer their worst memories over and over again. "Seen any Goa'uld markings, Teal'c?"     "I do not." Teal'c replied with a frown, not understanding why the question was asked. "There are just flowers on this planet."     "And not even a tree." Sam commented.     That was when Daniel realized that they had not moved since they saw the flowers. That was weird. Most likely, Jack would ask everyone to move out and secure the area. "Hey, you guys. Do you see that-"     ~Why do you trespass on our grounds?~     The whole team started and Daniel managed to statter, "I-I'm sorry. We're on your grounds?" He looked down. He was still on the ramp made for the Stargate. Was the Stargate sacred, then? "Who are you?"     ~We are the keepers of the real.~     "Oh, great. Another keeper." Jack muttered under his breath.     ~None has ever dared to come here. They fear the real. Did you come here so that you would see?~     Daniel turned to Jack for permission. And Jack looked at Teal'c to see if there were any danger. Teal'c looked at Sam to see her logical answer. And Sam just looked at them like they were crazy.     "Um... Yeah. I guess so. Why not?" Daniel said.     A wind howled overhead at them. The flowers quivered a bit as their answer was formed.     ~Then you may come. Follow the blue, and do not be decieved by the ones who fear the real themselves.~     In an instant, some of the flower petals turned blue, making that into a straight line for them to follow.     "Okay," Jack sighed and reluclantly put on his cap. They were there to explore, weren't they? And there was any hostilities. So why not? "Let's go, campers."     The team followed behind him as they all followed the blue flowers, wondering what the "Real" was.   
    "This is strange." Tank said to himself as he looked over one of his computer moniters. "How come I never saw this before?"     "What?"     Tank turned his chair to see Neo, fresh out of the Matrix, looking at him. Neo still hadn't learn to read the info that fast yet, even though he would be the only one who was able to see it while in the Matrix.     "There's a fracture in the Matrix," Tank explained. "Where's Trinity?" Ever since that death encounter with Neo, Trinity refused to leave his side. But now Neo seemed quite alone.     "I managed to convice her to go relax. She's in one of the vacation programs."     Tank whistled. "You're the first thats' gotten to her." He turned back to the screen. "Anyway, it seems that humans had already managed to explore some part of space."     "I know that." Neo said with a frown. "That's no big secret."     "No." Tank said. "I mean that they've already estabished a first contact." He tapped his computer. "And second and third. Humans already contacted lots of aliens."     "You're kidding." Neo said, unbelieveably. "I'm out of the Matrix for three minutes, and this is what happens?"     "Supposed to be a government cover-up. Something about the best of the best going contract." Tank frowned. The screen was old, and the words were suddenly kind of hard to read. "I guess the ol' X-Files was right."     "That cover up?" Neo asked with a raised eyebrow. "What about this cover up?" He paused. "Names? Could be agents."     "Lots," Tank replied with a shake of his head. "This is a full blown underground operation. Litterally."     "Then give me the best of the best." Neo said.     Tank squinted at the screen. Was he getting this right? "Um... SG-1. I think. Four people. First off, Colonel Jack O'Neill. Then Captain Samantha Carter. Blond."     Neo rolled his eyes.     "Teal'c." Tank paused. "An alien. And finally, Dr. Daniel Jackson. Gravedigger."     "Strange team. This is the best of the best?"     "That what it says." Tank said. "And their experiances prove it." He typed something strange onto the computer. "Wow. Superheros, too. Saved the Earth a few times."     "Now isn't that interesting?" Neo murmured to himself. "Wonder how they'd feel if they were told that they saved nothing but a virtual reality that would not be destroyed by its own programing."     "Who knows?" Tank said casually. "Everyone's reaction is different." He then stopped, realizing what Neo was talking about. Tank spun his chair and turned back to the hard-eyed man. "You mean you want to bail them out?"     Neo stayed silent a moment, almost if considering. Then, he shook his head. "I don't know. I'm tell Morpheus about this, but I doubt that he'll want them, even if they are the best of the best. It's just... you know, there's actually a suspisous activity in the Matrix. You said that it was buried deeply in the Matrix?"     "Didn't say, but it is." Tank answered.     "Then what if the Matrix itself doesn't know about them?" Neo asked, narrow eyed.     "Are you crazy? They live in the Matrix. There's no way that Agents won't be all over them too once we think about the possiblity that we should break them out. Besides, they're way too old."     "Not really." Neo said. "They're too old only if they don't believe. And they sould like types that would believe nearly anything."     "Whatever, man." Tank shook his head, and went back to the computers, trying to ignore Neo who was staring at the screen, trying to decode the script by looking at it.   
    Colonel Jack O'Neill rubbed his eyes as he stiffled a yawn. Usually he wouldn't be tired yet, but this was just so booooring....... They're been following the flower trail for over three hours, and the sun looked like it was starting to set. Worst of all, Daniel and Carter were having a high speed conversation. One in which he did not want to join, thank you very much.     A spare glance at his team told him everything that he needed to know. He had to be the luckiest man ever to be able to command such a team like this.     "Hey, Jack, I think the trails stop here." Daniel tugged at his sleeve.     "Strange." Carter commented. "It simply leads into another patch of flowers." She handed Daniel a tissue as he let out another sneeze. The good about that was that Daniel had not been sneezing as much as the others had thought that he would. Not bad.     "I do not see what is so strange about that, Major Carter." Teal'c frowned, his face stony, but anyone who looked closely could see that he was slightly unnerved, and was holding his staff weapon a bit tighter than usual, ready to fight if any harm should befall his friends.     "Well, I thought that it would bring us to some sort of plain, or something." Carter said. "Maybe- maybe even another Stargate, or a system that workds like a Stargate. The possiblilities of either space or time travel is infanius, and it could be that- wait a minute, unless there was some sort of spce disortion here...." She was starting to look like she was deep in thought.     Daniel, who had been clueless about astrophyics before he met the Major, was spending far too much time with her. "You could be right. The patch seems to be a little out of place, maybe even-"     "Please!" Jack threw up his hands. "Spare me with your technobabble."    "Us, sir?" Carter looked pained. "We'd never!"     Daniel just had a sloppy grin on his face and Teal'c was frowning even deeper, probably because he didn't understand. But then- Jack didn't, either.     "But really. How did we get into this mess?" Daniel asked aloud to no one in particular.     Point.     "Well, out motive is to explore and find out things that may help us in the battle against the Gou'alds. Not to mention, we made contact with a race we haven't seen yet. It could be that they're trying to help us." Carter countered.     Counterpoint.     "Also the fact that this count be a trap by who knows who?" Daniel continued, ignoring Sam. "How come we didn't hesitate when we've done so before?" No one answered that. Why didn't thay hesistate before anything? Just the way they were. They walk into trouble, and they can't get out. So... point again.     "Okay." Jack said. He knew the others were all looking at him to see if he wanted to head back or not. "Well... this is nice. If we don't go, we'll ruin all our diplomatic intentions." He pointedly gave a glare to Daniel to have brought that up in the first place. "And if we go, we don't know where we're going." There, he gave a glare to Carter. Very evenly matched, not bad.     "I believe that we are going to the middle of a patch of flowers." Teal'c pointed out.     Jack gave him a glare too. 75% of the team in a mess. No, make that 100%. He had no clue what to do. A leader's work was never done. "How about we check out some samples for these flowers-"     Carter brightened up.     Teal'c remained confused.     Daniel sneezed.     "-And get back before Dr. Jackson here blows his nose off." Jack gave a pointed grin in which was replied by shrugs. There. That should do it.     "What about the fact that we told them we would look into this 'real' thing?" Daniel objected.     "Well, Daniel, you're welcome to stay if you want." Jack thought it over. "But we can also say we have an emergancy and that we need to get you back for more anti-histames. Yours sure don't work too well." The colonel looked over his shoulder a bit, then looked back at his team. He had the strangest feeling of unease here. Not the danger feeling that tells him something's going to happen, nor the feeling when someone's watching him. But more like... something weird is going to happen, whether he wanted it to, or not. "Major, move it out. I want those samples down ASAP so that we can go on home."     The strange part was when he looked at the flowers, he had the strangest sense of deja vu.   
To be continued.... 


End file.
